I was just reminded that the money has been re-invested into the inaugural Tiger Street Food Support Fund. THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS, to be exact. Wah, 说到做到, man. I’m extremely excited about the fund. It would reinvigorate the hawker scene, especially with the two new hawker centres coming up in Pasir Ris and Jurong West in 2017.

What is the Tiger Street Food Support Fund for?It is to help hawkers offset costs in any aspect of the hawker’s business, except for rental fees. This fund will be very useful for new and/or aspiring hawkers.

How much will a hawker receive?
Up to 30 successful applicants will receive $10,000 each.

Who can apply?
Singapore citizens and PRs who are currently operating a cooked food stall in a hawker centre or kopitiam with effect from 15 June 2016 OR will be setting up a stall by no later than 31 Dec 2017.

In theory, any hawker who fits the bill can apply lah, but if you already run a very successful stall with a 2-hour queue, then it will be nice to give other hawkers a chance.

Dates to RememberApplications will run from 15 Sept to 15 Dec 2016.
Successful applicants will be contacted by Asia Pacific Breweries Singapore by 5 Jan 2017.

Ok, so that’s the Tiger Street Food Support Fund, which is one aspect of how Tiger Beer attempts to reinvigorate and support the hawker scene. You may have also seen some of the short films, highlighting the lives of different hawkers, so that we can understand them better.

I really like those films because they show that hawkers are empowered. You know you always hear people say that “hawkers have to wake up early, and they work very hard, and that’s why youths don’t want to be hawkers.” I have always thought those are very negative thoughts.

But in the Tiger films, the hawkers are shown that they choose to wake up early, they choose to work hard, and they do want to be hawkers. They chose, they have a choice, they are empowered.Tiger Beer’s attempt to reinvigorate our street food heritage is very complete. A third area, besides the funds and films, is that Tiger Beer will be focusing on us, the customers who visit hawker centres and coffeeshops.

In April, Tiger Beer had given out $5 food vouchers at select kopitiams to lucky Singaporeans to have a complimentary meal on Tiger Beer. This is to encourage us to eat at hawker centres and kopitiams. You can use the $5 to eat at any stall in the kopitiam. I went for the one at Tampines and the atmosphere was electrifying. Everyone, from the customers and hawkers, were having so much fun.

Because the movement is so popular and successful, Tiger Beer is giving out more $5 dining vouchers in the second phase of the movement. This time round, they will be revealing the location 2 hours prior to the activity on Tiger Beer’s Facebook.

Tiger Beer has really done a lot, and now, we need to do something to assist Tiger’s endeavor. In a bid to give hawkers the appreciation and gratitude they deserve, we encourage you to use the hashtag #uncagestreetfood whenever you post a photo/video of your favorite street food and/or hawker. Best if you can say a little thank you to them too, as Tiger Beer will be compiling these thank you messages later to show our hawkers how much they mean to us!

It’s a very sweet way to let your favorite hawker know that you appreciate their years of hard work. And besides, posting photos is effortless. Come on, we still have a fighting chance to save our food heritage. It’s not like global warming, right? Haha.

Written by A. Nathanael Ho.Photo credit: All photos in this entry belong to Tiger Beer.